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{{Short description|Methodology for cultural comparison}}{{italic title}}File:Pompeii - Temple of Isis - Io and Isis - MAN.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A Roman wall painting showing the Egyptian goddess Isis (seated right) welcoming the Greek heroine Io to Egypt]] (Latin, "Greek translation"), or "interpretation by means of Greek [models]", refers to the tendency of the ancient Greeks to identify foreign deities with their own gods.ENCYCLOPEDIA, Tomasz, Giaro, Graf, Fritz, Interpretatio, Brill's New Pauly, 5 (Equ-Has), Cancik, Hubert, Schneider, Helmuth, Leiden, Brill, 2004, 978-90-04-12268-0, ENCYCLOPEDIA, Gordon, Richard L., syncretism, Oxford Classical Dictionary, Hornblower, Simon, Spawforth, Antony, revised 3rd, Oxford University Press, 2003, 0-19-860641-9, It is a discourseCharacterized as "discourse" by Mark S. Smith, God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008, 2010), p. 246. used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a comparative methodology using ancient Greek religious concepts and practices, deities, and myths, equivalencies, and shared characteristics.The phrase may describe Greek efforts to explain others' beliefs and myths, as when Herodotus describes Egyptian religion in terms of perceived Greek analogues, or when Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch document Roman cults, temples, and practices under the names of equivalent Greek deities. may also describe non-Greeks' interpretation of their own belief systems by comparison or assimilation with Greek models, as when Romans adapt Greek myths and iconography under the names of their own gods.Interpretatio romana is comparative discourse in reference to ancient Roman religion and myth, as in the formation of a distinctive Gallo-Roman religion. Both the Romans and the Gauls reinterpreted Gallic religious traditions in relation to Roman models, particularly Imperial cult.Jan Assmann considers the polytheistic approach to internationalizing gods as a form of "intercultural translation":The great achievement of polytheism is the articulation of a common semantic universe. ... The meaning of a deity is his or her specific character as it unfolded in myths, hymns, rites, and so on. This character makes a deity comparable to other deities with similar traits. The similarity of gods makes their names mutually translatable. ... The practice of translating the names of the gods created a concept of similarity and produced the idea or conviction that the gods are international.Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 44–54 (quotation p. 45), as cited by Smith, God in Translation, p. 39.Pliny the Elder expressed the "translatability" of deities as "different names to different peoples" (nomina alia aliis gentibus).Pliny, Natural History 2.5.15. This capacity made possible the religious syncretism of the Hellenistic era and the pre-Christian Roman Empire.

Examples

File:Hall of the Augustals.jpg|thumb|A Roman fresco from Herculaneum depicting Hercules (from Etruscan Hercle and ultimately Greek Heracles) and Achelous (patron deity of the Achelous River in Greece) from Greco-Roman mythologyRoman mythologyHerodotus was one of the earliest authors to engage in this form of interpretation. In his observations regarding the Egyptians, he establishes Greco-Egyptian equivalents that endured into the Hellenistic era, including Amon/Zeus, Osiris/Dionysus, and Ptah/Hephaestus. In his observations regarding the Scythians, he equates their queen of the gods, Tabiti, to Hestia, Papaios and Api to Zeus and Gaia respectively, and Argimpasa to Aphrodite Urania, while also claiming that the Scythians worshipped equivalents to Herakles and Ares, but which he does not name.Some pairs of Greek and Roman gods, such as Zeus and Jupiter, are thought to derive from a common Indo-European archetype (Dyeus as the supreme sky god), and thus exhibit shared functions by nature. Others required more expansive theological and poetic efforts: though both Ares and Mars are war gods, Ares was a relatively minor figure in Greek religious practice and deprecated by the poets, while Mars was a father of the Roman people and a central figure of archaic Roman religion.Some deities dating to Rome's oldest religious stratum, such as Janus and Terminus, had no Greek equivalent. Other Greek divine figures, most notably Apollo, were adopted directly into Roman culture, but underwent a distinctly Roman development, as when Augustus made Apollo one of his patron deities. In the early period, Etruscan culture played an intermediary role in transmitting Greek myth and religion to the Romans, as evidenced in the linguistic transformation of Greek Heracles to Etruscan Her[e]cle to Roman Hercules.

Interpretatio romana

The phrase interpretatio romana was first used by the Imperial-era historian Tacitus in the Germania.Tacitus, Germania 43. Tacitus reports that in a sacred grove of the Nahanarvali, "a priest adorned as a woman presides, but they commemorate gods who in Roman terms (interpretatione romana) are Castor and Pollux.""Praesidet sacerdos muliebri ornatu, sed deos interpretatione romana Castorem Pollucemque memorant." Elsewhere,Tacitus, Germania 9. he identifies the principal god of the Germans as Mercury, perhaps referring to Wotan.BOOK,weblink Robert Leo Odom, Sunday in Roman Paganism (TEACH 2003 ISBN 978-1-57258242-2), pp. 251-252, 2003-01-01, 2013-01-24, 9781572582422, Odom, Robert Leo, TEACH Services, File:Sulis Minerva head Bath.jpg|thumb|Gilt bronze head from the cult statue of Sulis Minerva from the Temple at Bath ]]Some information about the deities of the ancient Gauls (the continental Celts), who left no written literature other than inscriptions, is preserved by Greco-Roman sources under the names of Greek and Latin equivalents. A large number of Gaulish theonyms or cult titles are preserved, for instance, in association with Mars. As with some Greek and Roman divine counterparts, the perceived similarities between a Gallic and a Roman or Greek deity may reflect a common Indo-European origin.John T. Koch, "Interpretatio romana," in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 974. Lugus was identified with Mercury, Nodens with Mars as healer and protector, Sulis with Minerva. In some cases, however, a Gallic deity is given an interpretatio romana by means of more than one god, varying among literary texts or inscriptions. Since the religions of the Greco-Roman world were not dogmatic, and polytheism lent itself to multiplicity, the concept of "deity" was often expansive, permitting multiple and even contradictory functions within a single divinity, and overlapping powers and functions among the diverse figures of each pantheon. These tendencies extended to cross-cultural identifications.Koch, "Interpretatio romana," in Celtic Culture, pp. 974–975; Assmann, Moses the Egyptian, p. 45.In the Eastern empire, the Anatolian storm god with his double-headed axe became Jupiter Dolichenus, a favorite cult figure among soldiers.

Application to the Jewish religion

Roman scholars such as Varro{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} interpreted the monotheistic god of the Jews into Roman terms as Caelus or Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Some Greco-Roman authors seem to have understood the Jewish invocation of Yahweh Sabaoth as Sabazius.(Valerius Maximus), epitome of Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings, i. 3, 2, see EXEMPLUM 3. [Par.]In a similar vein, Plutarch gave an example of a symposium question "Who is the god of the Jews?", by which he meant: "What is his Greek name?" as we can deduce from the first speaker at the symposium, who maintained that the Jews worshiped Dionysus, and that the day of Sabbath was a festival of Sabazius. Lacunae prevent modern scholars from knowing the other speakers' thoughts.Plutarch. Symposiacs, iv, 6. Tacitus, on the topic of the Sabbath, claims that "others say that it is an observance in honour of Saturn, either from the primitive elements of their faith having been transmitted from the Idæi, who are said to have shared the flight of that God, and to have founded the race",Tacitus, Histories 5.4 implying Saturn was the god of the Jews.From the Roman point of view, it was natural to apply the above principle to the Jewish God. However, the Jews, unlike other peoples living under Roman rule, rejected any such attempt out of hand, regarding such an identification as the worst of sacrilege. This complete divergence of views was one of the factors contributing to the frequent friction between the Jews and the Roman Empire; for example, the Emperor Hadrian's decision to rebuild Jerusalem under the name of Aelia Capitolina, a city dedicated to Jupiter, precipitated the bloodbath of the Bar Kokhba revolt.Emperor Julian, the 4th century pagan emperor, remarked that "these Jews are in part god-fearing, seeing that they revere a god who is truly most powerful and most good and governs this world of sense, and, as I well know, is worshipped by us also under other names".Julian, Letter XX to Theodorus, translated by Wilmer Cave Wright (1913) However, Julian specifies no "other names" under which the Jewish god was worshiped.In late antiquity mysticism, the sun god Helios is sometimes equated to the Judeo-Christian God.Eleni Pachoumi, The Religious and Philosophical Assimilation of Helios in the Greek Papyri

Cross-cultural equivalencies

{{More citations needed section|date=February 2023}}The following table is a list of Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Egyptian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Zoroastrian, and Celtic equivalencies via the interpretationes. These are not necessarily gods who share similar traits (as viewed by modern scholarship or readers, at least), and rarely do they share a common origin (for that, see comparative Indo-European pantheons); they are simply gods of various cultures whom the Greeks or Romans identified (either explicitly in surviving works, or as supported by the analyses of modern scholars) with their own gods and heroes. This system is easily seen in the names of the days of the week, which were frequently translated according to the interpretatio.{| style="margin:auto;" class="wikitable sortable"! Greek! Roman! Etruscan! Egyptian! Phoenician! Zororastrian! Celtic! Functions

Achilles		Achle|||||hero

Adonis		Atunis	Osiris	Tammuz (Adōn)|||agriculture; resurrection

Amphitrite	Salacia|	Hatmehit||||sea goddess

Anemoi	Venti|||	Vayu-Vata||winds

Aphrodite	Venus	Turan (Apru)	Hathor / IsisWITT>FIRST=R. E.	YEAR=1997	PAGE=126, 9780801856426,	Astarte	Anahita||beauty; sex; love

Apollo		Apulu	Horus	Resheph	Mithra	Belenus / Maponos / Borvo / Grannus|light; prophecy; healing; plagues; archery; music; poets

Ares	Mars	Laran	Anhur|	Verethragna	Toutatis / Nodens / Neton|war

Artemis	Diana	Artume	BastetVON LIEVEN>FIRST=ALEXANDRA	INTERPRETATIO GRAECA OF EGYPTIAN GODS>TITLE=GRECO-EGYPTIAN INTERACTIONS: LITERATURE, TRANSLATION, AND CULTURE, 500 BC-AD 300	EDITOR-FIRST=IAN	YEAR=2016	ISBN=9780191630118,	Kotharat	Drvaspa||hunting, the hunt; wilderness, wild animals; virginity, childbirth; Diana: lit. heavenly or divine

Asclepius	Aesculapius / Vejove	Veiove	Imhotep	Eshmun|||healing

Athena

MinervaHARD>FIRST=ROBIN

LOCATION=LONDON

YEAR=2004

ISBN=978-0-415-18636-0,

Menrva

NeithVON LIEVEN>FIRST=ALEXANDRA

INTERPRETATIO GRAECA OF EGYPTIAN GODS>TITLE=GRECO-EGYPTIAN INTERACTIONS: LITERATURE, TRANSLATION, AND CULTURE, 500 BC-AD 300

EDITOR-FIRST=IAN

YEAR=2016

ISBN=9780191630118, / Isis

Anat

Anahita

Sulis / Belisama / Senuna / Coventina / Icovellauna / Sequana|wisdom; war strategy; the arts and crafts; weaving

Atlas		Aril	Shu (Egyptian god)	REMLER	URL=HTTPS://BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM/BOOKS?ID=WLUJTPDYU-IC	EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY, A TO Z>PUBLISHER=INFOBASE PUBLISHING	ISBN=9781438131801	ACCESS-DATE=6 OCTOBER 2014, ||||holder of the celestial spheres

Atropos	Morta	Leinth|||||Atropos: lit. inflexible; death

Boreas	Aquilo	Andas|||||North Wind or Devouring One

Castor and Polydeuces (Dioscuri)	Castor and Pollux (Gemini)	Castur and Pultuce (Tinas cliniar)|||||twins

Charites	Graces||||||grace; splendor; festivity; charity

Charon		Charun	Aqen||||fierce, flashing, feverish gaze (eyes)

Chloris	Flora||||||Chloris: lit. greenish-yellow, pale green, pale, pallid, fresh; Flora: lit. flower

Clotho	Nona||||||spinning; thread

Cronus	Saturn	Satre	Khnum	El (Elus)|||Time, generation, dissolution, agriculture

Cybele	Magna Mater||||||Magna Mater: lit. Great Mother

Demeter	Ceres	Zerene	IsisGRAF>FIRST1=FRITZ	FIRST2=SARAH ILES	PUBLISHER=ROUTLEDGE	PAGE=76, 978-0-415-41550-7, |	Ashi||grains, agricultural fertility; Demeter: lit. Earth Mother

Dionysus	Liber / Bacchus	Fufluns	OsirisVON LIEVEN>FIRST=ALEXANDRA	INTERPRETATIO GRAECA OF EGYPTIAN GODS>TITLE=GRECO-EGYPTIAN INTERACTIONS: LITERATURE, TRANSLATION, AND CULTURE, 500 BC-AD 300	EDITOR-FIRST=IAN	YEAR=2016	ISBN=9780191630118, ||	Cernunnos|wine and winemaking; revelry; ecstasy; Liber: lit. the free one

Enyo	Bellona	Enie	Sekhmet||||war

Eos	Aurora (mythology)	/ Mater Matuta>Matuta	Thesan	Tefnut||||dawn

Erinyes	Dirae||||||Furies

Eris	Discordia	Eris	Anat	Shahar|||strife

Eros	Cupid (Amor)	Erus|||||sexual love

Euterpe		Euturpa / Euterpe|||||"she who delights"; muse of music (especially flute music) and song; later, also of lyric poetry

Eurus	Vulturnus||||||East Wind

Gaia	Terra / Tellus	Cel	Geb|	Zam||the earth

Hades	Dis Pater / Pluto (mythology)	/ Orcus (mythology)>Orcus	Aita	Anubis / Osiris	Mot	Angra Mainyu||the underworld. Hades: lit. the unseen

Hebe	Juventas|	Renpet||||youth

Hecate	Trivia|	Heqet||	Matronae	will; Hecate: trans. she who has power far off HTTPS://WWW.PERSEUS.TUFTS.EDU/HOPPER/TEXT?DOC=PERSEUS%3ATEXT%3A1999.04.0057%3AENTRY%3D%2331691&REDIRECT=TRUE	PUBLISHER=PERSEUS.TUFTS.EDU, 2013-01-24,

Helios	Sol Invictus / Sol Indiges	Usil	RaVON LIEVEN>FIRST=ALEXANDRA	INTERPRETATIO GRAECA OF EGYPTIAN GODS>TITLE=GRECO-EGYPTIAN INTERACTIONS: LITERATURE, TRANSLATION, AND CULTURE, 500 BC-AD 300	EDITOR-FIRST=IAN	YEAR=2016	ISBN=9780191630118,	Shamash (Utu)	Mithra||sun

Hephaestus	Vulcan	Sethlans	Ptah	Kothar-wa-KhasisKOTHAR – SEMITIC DEITY >URL=HTTPS://WWW.BRITANNICA.COM/TOPIC/KOTHAR	ENCYCLOPEDIA=ENCYCLOPæDIA BRITANNICA, 5 May 2021,	Atar	Gobannos|metalwork, forges; fire, lava

Hera	Juno	Uni	Mut / Hathor|	Armaiti||marriage, family

Heracles	Hercules	Hercle	Heryshaf, Shu (Egyptian god)	HERODOTUS	DATE=2004	ISBN=978-0-674-99130-9	SERIES=THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY	PAGES=327 N,	Melqart	Rostam	Ogmios|Heracles: lit. glory/fame of Hera

Hermes	Mercury	Turms	Anubis, Thoth	Taautus	Shamash	Lugus / Viducus|transitions; boundaries; thieves; travelers; commerce; Hermes: poss. "interpreter"; Mercurius: related to Latin "merx" (merchandise), "mercari" (to trade), and "merces" (wages)

Hesperus	Vesper||	Shalim||	evening, supper, evening star, westCollins Latin Dictionary plus Grammar, p. 231. {{ISBN>0-06-053690-X}}

Hestia	Vesta|	Anuket||||hearth, fireplace, domesticity

Hygeia	Salus||||	Sirona|health; cleanliness

Ilithyia	Lucina	Ilithiia	Tawaret||||childbirth, midwifery

Irene	Pax||||||peace

Iris	Arcus / Iris|	Nut||||rainbow

|

Janus	Culsans|||||beginnings; transitions; motion; doorways

Lachesis	Decima||||||Lachesis: lit. disposer of lots; luck

Leto	Latona	Letun|||||Demureness; mothers

Maia||||		Rosmerta|growth

Moirai (Moerae)	Fates or Parcae||||||Apportioners

Muses	Camenae||||||Music; inspiration

Nemesis or Rhamnusia	Invidia|||||| "retribution"

Nike	Victoria	Meanpe|||	Bodua / Brigantia / Nemetona|victory

Notus	Auster||||||South Wind

Odysseus	Ulysses or Ulixes	Uthste|||||hero

Palaemon	Portunus||||||keys, doors; ports, harbors

Pan	Faunus|	Min (god)	, KhemTREVOR	URL=HTTPS://BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM/BOOKS?ID=1M1LAAAACAAJ&DQ=PAN+KHEM&PG=PA137	DATE=1863	LANGUAGE=EN, ||||nature, the wild

Persephone	Proserpina	Persipnei|||||poss. "to emerge"

Phaon		Phaun / Faun / Phamu|||||mortal boatman given youth and beauty by Aphrodite

Pheme	Fama||||||fame; rumor

Phosphoros	Lucifer||	Attar|||lit. light bearer

Poseidon	Neptune	Nethuns|	Yam	Apam Napat||sea; water; horses; earthquakes

Priapus	Mutunus Tutunus||||||fertility; livestock; gardens; male genitalia

Prometheus		Prumathe|||||forethought

Rhea	Ops / Magna Mater (see Cybele above)|	Nut	Asherah|||Rhea: lit. flowing. Ops: lit. wealth, abundance, resources.

Selene	Luna	Losna	Isis, Thoth, Khonsu	Yarikh	Mah		moon

Tiur

Silenos	Silvanus	Selvans|||	Sucellus|Silvanus: lit. of the woods

Thallo|	Thalna|||||blossoms

Thanatos	Mors	Leinth	Anubis	Mot			death

Charun

Themis	Justitia|	Ma'at||||law of nature

Tyche	Fortuna	Nortia|	Gad|||luck, fortune

Typhon|		Set / Apep||||"whirlwinds, storms, chaos, darkness"

Uranus	Caelus|	Nut	El	Asman||sky, heavens

|

Vertumnus	Voltumna|	Baal|||the seasons; change

Zephyr	Favonius||||||West Wind; Favonius: lit. favorable

Zeus

Jupiter (god)

or JoveGRAF

LAST2=LEY

TITLE=IUPPITER

VOLUME=6 (HAS-JUS)

EDITOR-FIRST1=HUBERT

EDITOR-FIRST2=HELMUTH

PUBLISHER=BRILL

ISBN=978-90-04-12269-7,

Tinia

AmunVON LIEVEN>FIRST=ALEXANDRA

INTERPRETATIO GRAECA OF EGYPTIAN GODS>TITLE=GRECO-EGYPTIAN INTERACTIONS: LITERATURE, TRANSLATION, AND CULTURE, 500 BC-AD 300

EDITOR-FIRST=IAN

YEAR=2016

ISBN=9780191630118,

Hadad

Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd)

Taranis|weather, storms, lightning,Sky Father

In art

Examples of deities depicted in syncretic compositions by means of interpretatio graeca or romana:File:Museo Barracco - Giove Ammone 1010637.JPG|Jupiter Ammon (terracotta of Hellenistic style, 1st century AD)File:Roman - Deity or Genius of the Eastern Provinces - Walters 541330.jpg|Syncretized figure from the Eastern provinces, perhaps a Genius (1st century BC – 1st century AD)File:Isis Musei Capitolini MC744.jpg|Isis holding sistrum and oinochoe (Roman marble, reign of Hadrian)File:Isis Sarapis Harpocrates Dionysos Louvre Ma3128.jpg|Isis, Serapis, the child Harpocrates and Dionysos (relief from Roman Africa, late 2nd century AD)File:ZeusSerapisOhrmazdWithWorshipperBactria3rdCenturyCE.jpg|Worshipper before Zeus–Serapis–Ohrmazd (Bactria, 3rd century AD)

See also

• Aion (deity)
• Mystery religions
• Honji suijaku, in Japan
• Interpretatio germanica
• Interpretatio Christiana
• Celtic deities
• Proto-Indo-European religion, a reconstructed religion that relates Greek deities to other Indo-European deities
• Shinbutsu-shÅ«gō, a Japanese amalgamation of Buddhist and Shinto deities
• Syncretism
• Three teachings, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism as harmonious aggregate in Chinese philosophy.
• Unknown god

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

Further reading

• BOOK, Assmann, Jan, Jan Assmann, Translating Gods: Religion as a Factor of Cultural (Un)Translatability, de Vries, Hent, Religion: Beyond a Concept, 2008, Fordham University Press, 9780823227242,
• Bergmann, Jan (1969). "Beitrag zur Interpretatio Graeca. Ägyptische Götter in griechischer Ãœbertragung." In: Sven S. Hartman (ed.), Syncretism. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, pp. 207–227.
• Kaspers, Wilhelm. "Germanische Götternamen." Zeitschrift Für Deutsches Altertum Und Deutsche Literatur 83, no. 2 (1951): 79–91. www.jstor.org/stable/20654522.
• BOOK, Pakkanen, Petra, Interpreting Early Hellenistic Religion: A Study Based on the Mystery Cult of Demeter and the Cult of Isis, 1996, Foundation of the Finnish Institute at Athens, 978-951-95295-4-7,
• Pfeiffer, Stefan (2015). "Interpretatio Graeca. Der „übersetzte Gott“ in der multikulturellen Gesellschaft des hellenistischen Ägypten." In: Lange, Melanie; Rösel, Martin (ed.), Der übersetzte Gott. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, pp. 37–53.